From Tehran, these images have gone around the world: teenage girls who, within their own establishment, tear up their textbooks, trample them and then burn them. Their gesture, of incredible courage, is addressed to the Islamic Republic and its Guide, Ayatollah Khamenei, whose long gray beard adorns the cover of all educational books in Iranian schools. “In authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, school textbooks directly bear the seal of the state and display the portrait of their leader, unlike in Western democracies, underlines Marcus Sheff, director of the Institute for the monitoring of peace and cultural tolerance in school education (Impact-SE). These books give a very precise idea of the values and identity that the State wants to transmit to its youth.”
Based in Jerusalem, the Impact-SE organization has been translating and studying all school textbooks from around twenty countries for 25 years, based on UNESCO criteria. A way to observe the evolution of societies and their leaders, but also to denounce the radicalization of certain governments. “Textbooks are tools for political prediction, explains Marcus Sheff. What we see in education books corresponds more or less to the society that will come in a few years. If you want to work with your neighbors and understand their way of think, school books are an essential reading grid.”
L’Express scrutinized three educational programs that say a lot about the political dynamics of their country and their diplomatic orientations.
• Iran: a teaching of hatred questioned by the population
Since 2006, Impact-SE has regularly published reports on Iran’s education system, the fruit of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Its latest study, published last August, covers 106 textbooks in the Islamic Republic, ranging from primary school to high school. . His conclusion is clear: “the Iranian school curriculum teaches hatred and promises divine punishment to those who do not follow the warlike path of jihad”.
“The school program has always been radical in Iran, points out Marcus Sheff. But we have observed a major evolution in recent years: we are moving from a theoretical teaching of the revolution to a practical teaching of the revolution. School programs inculcate in children that ‘Death to Israel’ is not just a slogan, but a real and achievable goal.” Large sections of school books are devoted to the “martyrs” of the Islamic Republic, in particular the scientists who are members of the nuclear program killed in recent years by external operations. The only women celebrated are those who died for their country.
Through history, geography or economics, Iranian textbooks insist on the need for Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. “The 1979 Islamic Revolution is touted as a model for all countries, reports the study. Arab governments are denounced as illegitimate and Iran described as the defender of the ‘oppressed of this world’, regardless of their origins, of language or religion.” Teaching Arabic to young Iranians is thus part of the “revolution” advocated by the mullahs, for whom the peoples should rise up against their leaders.
Since the end of September and the death of Mahsa Amini for a badly put on veil, the revolt of Iranian youth shows that, for the most part, they do not adhere to this propaganda. “The big question, especially at the moment, is how many Iranian children are in line with what they are taught, says Marcus Sheff. In an authoritarian regime, you do not have to convince everyone, but only a hard core made up of clerics, politicians, policemen and scientists. Having 30 to 40% of a population on your side can be enough to keep control of a country.”
• Russia: young minds prepared for war against Ukraine
Impact-SE has focused its translations and studies on Middle Eastern school curricula from the outset, but with the start of the war in Ukraine, Marcus Sheff could not miss the Russian textbooks, “a fascinating case study ” according to him. “In Russian schoolbooks, the Ukrainians’ demands for independence are seen as a mistake, as having no meaning, he explains. For them, Ukraine is of interest only by being part of the ‘Soviet Union.” Its teams have gone through twelve Russian history textbooks in order to better understand the state of mind in Moscow.
Unsurprisingly, “events in Ukraine since 2014, the Maidan revolution and the annexation of Crimea, are described only from the point of view of the Russian government, without any neutrality or recognition of a Ukrainian version, points out the study. In school curricula, President Vladimir Putin and Russia are the saviors of the Ukrainian people, while Ukrainian nationalism is only portrayed in connection with Nazism. Students are taught that the government of kyiv is a nationalist and elitist entity who neglected his own people, especially the citizens of Crimea, to further his corrupt interests.” Behind the Ukrainians’ desire for independence, there is obviously a Western maneuver to weaken Russia.
These descriptions of present-day Ukraine, already widely relayed in the Russian press and in official speeches, find their origin in the (holes) vision of the historical relations between the two countries. The famine of 1932, orchestrated by Stalin to punish the Ukrainians and which caused millions of deaths, illustrates the shortcomings of the Russian program: “Famines are mentioned in Russian books, but there is no mention of the fact that the Ukrainian government and many countries consider them a genocide perpetrated by the Russians against the Ukrainians,” notes Impact-SE.
To understand the roots of the antagonism between the two countries, the organization also translated and analyzed Ukrainian textbooks. “Ukrainian school curricula attempt to give students the context to understand the origins of the current conflict, the study poses. Russia and Ukraine.”
Main black spot noted by Impact-SE in the school programs of kyiv: “Few elements evoke the crimes committed by the Ukrainians during the collaboration with the Nazi regime, described as a choice made with the aim of restoring an independent Ukraine and sovereign.” The history of the Holocaust, and the participation of the Ukrainian authorities, is however largely told there.
• In the Gulf, amazing progress still underway
It’s a rare ray of light in an increasingly radical educational world: over the past twenty years, Impact-SE has seen the discourse of the Gulf countries soften through their textbooks. “We are seeing a movement of moderation in the region, with leaders who understand how much this change is necessary, enthuses Marcus Sheff. The emergence of Daesh, in particular, has made them aware of the danger of the radicalization of their youths and the risk of them leaving to fight with Islamist groups.”
This moderation is particularly significant in the Gulf, where Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have developed their teachings, especially religious, for the youngest. “In Saudi Arabia, we expected to see radical Wahhabism taught, which was the case in 2003 and 2008, explains Marcus Sheff. But from 2019, we saw that the Saudis were erasing a major part of the anti-Semitic elements, jihadists and homophobes from their school curricula. The change is impressive, even if the work is not finished and their teaching is not perfect.”
Impact-SE’s annual study of Saudi Arabia notes that school curricula no longer teach the religious fundamentalism and ultranationalism that were unique to the kingdom. “But problematic examples remain in all subjects, reports the organization. Hostility towards others is still taught in religious studies and the attitude towards gender equality remains ambiguous. School books still feature entire chapters on warrior jihad.”
In the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, now president, had the most violent content removed from school textbooks a decade ago and fired the most fundamentalist teachers. “The Emirates school program is now one of the most advanced in the region, judge Marcus Sheff. It teaches the youngest that there is a direct link between prosperity, happiness and tolerance. particularly progressive idea.” A few years ago, warlike jihad was still on the curriculum in Dubai schools, with Jews and Christians portrayed as infidels.
Black spots remain, of course. Despite the Abraham Accords and the official recognition of Israel by the Emirates, the Jewish state still does not appear on the maps of geography books in Dubai. Furthermore, the Holocaust is not taught in history classes. “I imagine that one day Emirati students will learn the Holocaust in school,” wants to believe Marcus Sheff. His organization, in close contact with the Emirati government, is doing everything to make this happen.